DATELINE: 14th December 2000

BURST LUNG
An inquest has heard how a 22-year-old diver suffered a fit and died later in hospital after he forgot to exhale when surfacing from a dive off the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.
The Portsmouth coroner heard how, in June, Guy Killgallon dived with a group off Rarotonga island. John Keoghan, the group's leader, described how he had signalled for the divers to ascend from a depth of 23m and noticed that, as they rose, Killgallon was not exhaling.
His signals to Killgallon were in vain and, when the divers surfaced, Killgallon had a fit and started to sink. He was taken from the water and soon lost consciousness.
A post mortem concluded that Killgallon, who came from Liss in Hampshire and was travelling the world after obtaining a university degree, had drowned. Failure to exhale on ascent from depth would have allowed air to expand to dangerous levels, leading to burst lung.

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